PRAKASH Kajuri is 'asset-rich' but 'cash-poor'.

He earns about Rs 257 a day delivering packages in India's most populous city. But his home is sitting on land worth about Rs 85 crores!

Kajuri lives in Dharavi, often described as Asia's biggest slum. What was once a mangrove swamp along a railway line leading to central Mumbai, crams million people!

Dharavi, the next hot property?
Municipal authorities and developers want to raze it to the ground and replace with office towers, luxury apartments and shopping malls.

Families who can prove they have lived in Dharavi since 1995 would be entitled to a free apartment in the same area. But the new dwellings will be tiny -- just 225 square feet or 20 square metres -- about the size of a living room. Not surprisingly, many prefer to stay where they are. "Why should I move into such a small place with my family?" said Kajuri, a father of seven, who has lived in Dharavi for over three decades.

"If they want us to move, then they should give us the same amount of living space that we already have," he adds.

It's a goldmine
The land on which his nearly 700 square feet shanty stands could be worth at least Rs 100 million in Mumbai's soaring real estate market. "It used to be just marsh and bushes," said Girish Poojary, a guide who shows groups of curious tourists around Dharavi. "Builders from all over the world are coming because there's big money here. There's a domestic airport and business parks nearby. So, land is very expensive."

Bids to redevelop the roughly two-square-km (0.8 square mile) warren of brick and corrugated iron rooms into a high-rise housing and commercial complex are due to close by around mid-year.

The project is expected to take at least seven years to complete and could eventually be worth up to Rs 1 billion in property sales.

1

1 | 2 | 3 |  

• e-mail: Reuters
• Suggest a story idea! Write to us!